The present invention relates to robotic systems and sensor networks.
Sensor networks are increasingly being deployed to support home and office automation by passing data to and from remote sensor units. At the lowest level, a sensor unit""s task is to measure some characteristic of the real world (temperature, elevation, humidity) and report it in either a machine or human readable form. Sensor units require calibration because the characteristic in question is typically not measured directly, but rather inferred by some physical phenomenon.
Sensor networks offer new ways to monitor our environment and do so continuously and invisibly. These networks have wide applicability including medical, industrial, scientific, military, and consumer applications. Currently developed applications include security and defense systems, or management of environmental control systems (lighting, heating, air conditioning, sound) in a home or large office. More advanced applications include biomedical monitoring of individuals in remote locations, toxicity monitoring, or monitoring of basic office information services such as availability of highly-coveted conference rooms.
However, most applications currently have viability problems related to deployment, security, calibration, failure detection and power management. Sensors must be calibrated, positioned, powered, and replaced when defective. While small numbers of hard wired sensors or wireless sensors can be manually maintained, such human intensive methods are costly when hundreds of widely distributed sensors must be maintained.